Bail was set at $50,000 for a 43-year-old homeless man on Thursday, Oct. 17 after he was caught stealing a 12-ounce bottle of beer.
Officers of the Santa Monica Police Department were informed, via a radio call, at about 5 pm on this day that a theft had just taken place at a market located in the 2100 block of Main Street.
They were also told that the alleged thief had threatened the store’s owner and employees with physical harm if they dared to inhibit his free passage away from the store.
The suspect had allegedly stolen a single 12-ounce bottle of beer from the market and then left without paying.
One of the employees had stealthily followed this suspect from a safe distance and was able to alert a police patrol vehicle that was in the area.
The officers then, directed by the employee, arrested the suspect.
After the store employees had positively identified this man who was taken to Santa Monica Jail where he was charged with robbery.
Editor’s Note: These reports are part of a regular police coverage series entitled “Alert Police Blotter” (APB), which injects some minor editorial into certain police activities in Santa Monica. Not all of the Mirror’s coverage of incidents involving police are portrayed in this manner. More serious crimes and police-related activities are regularly reported without editorial in the pages of the Santa Monica Mirror and its website, smmirror.com.
